Overcenter toggle latch overlapping hopper doors



Sept-5, 1967 s. DOREY 3,339,500

v OVERCENTER TOGGLE LATCH OVERLAPPING HOPPER DOORS Filed Nov. 23, 1964 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Fig.

INVEN TOR Sept. 5, 1967 B. DOREY OVERCENTER TOGGLE LATCH OVERLAPPING HOPPER DOORS Filed Now-23, 1964 G. B. DOREY Sepf. 5,-1967 OVERCENIER TOGGLE LATCH OVERLAPPING HOPPER DOORS Filed NOV. 25, 1964 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 //v VENTOR Sept. 5, 1967 B. DOREY 3,339,500

OVERCENTER TOGGLE LATCH OVERLAPPING HOPPER DOORS Filed Nov. 23. 1964 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 m VEN T R United States Patent 3,339,500 OVERCENTER TOGGLE LATCH OVERLAPPING HOPPER DOORS George B. Dorey, Westrnount, Quebec, Canada, assignor to Continental Transport Appliances Limited, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, a corporation of Canada Filed Nov. 23, 1964, Ser. No. 412,952 6 Claims. (Cl. 105-253) This invention relates to improved hopper doors and mechanism for railway cars and relates to oppositely facing doors for closing a discharge opening.

The improvement is particularly adapted for use in connection with oppositely facing swinging doors which in closed position have their swinging ends meet in overlapping relation and it is therefore essential that the sequence of closing be arranged to positively bring the overlapped door to closed position in advance of the overlapping door.

Objects of the invention among others are: to provide a mechanical arrangement for positively moving an overlapped door in advance of the overlapping door; to provide an arrangement of doors meeting in overlapped relation to form a V shaped hopper with the overlapping door having a lip in-clining upwardly beneath the companion door to form a cup-like basin for prevention of leakage; to provide for lifting an overlapped door to closed position during initial partial revolution of an operating bar and thereafter to lift the companion door to closed position by further revolution of the bar; to provide a jackknife type of toggle locking mechanism operable from either side of the car; and to provide latching means for latching together the components of a two'piece toggle jackknife type of mechanism.

A particular object of the invention is the provision of open ended pockets arranged to receive an operating bar in such a manner as to positively ensure closure of a pair of oppositely facing doors in a given sequence and to further provide safety means associated with the pocket for releasing the bar therefrom upon overunning of the shaft upon release of the doors.

The invention further resides in the provision of a hollow tubular shaft for operating the doors and in the provision of a coaxially mounted locking shaft extending through the tubular shaft.

The improvement further contemplates the provision of a self-contained hopper unit assembly incorporating therein swinging dischar-ge doors and mechanism therefor applicable to the car structure as a complete assembly.

Referring to the drawings which show the improved hopper assembly applied to a so-called tank hopper car wherein the car is arranged to discharge the car contents between the rails and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a transverse -vertical sectional view taken through the car and showing the improvement applied thereto. FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the lower portion of the structure shown in FIG. 1, as viewed from right to left, showing the doors in closed and the mechanism in latched position and indicating by conventional dot and dash lines the position of the parts with the doors in opened position. FIG. 3. is a plan view of one of the doors and mechanism associated therewith, said view having the hopper structure eliminated to better illustrate the parts. FIG. 4 is a vertical elevational fractional view on an enlarged scale taken through the tubular shaft and latching element and on a line corresponding substantially to a line 44 of FIG. 2. FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 2 except that the doors are shown in a partial state of closure. FIG. 6 is a transverse vertical sectional view taken through the hopper on a line 6-6 of FIG. 1 showing the overlapped door held in closed position and the "ice overlapping door positioned with the pivotal axis joining the arm and link assembly aligned with the axes of the hinge pivot of the overlapping door and operating shaft respectively.

In said drawings the improvement is shown as embodied in a self-contained hopper structure applied to a railway car hopper. The car structure shown is of the type commonly called a tank hopper wherein the conventional center sill is dispensed with and bufling strains transmitted through side sills as indicated at 5-5. The wheels of the car are conventionally indicated at 6-6 and the rails at 7-7. This type of car is well adapted for clean discharge of lading through openings centrally disposed between the rails.

The hopper structure is shown as including transversely and longitudinally sloping walls as indicated at 8-8 and 9-9 respectively. The sloping walls meet to form an inverted truncate shaped structure, the margins of which define a four-sided discharge area 10. Surrounding the said hopper structure is a self-contained hopper frame assembly 11 attached to the hopper sloping walls by rivets or bolts 12. The frame assembly 11 is formed in part by channel shaped members 13-13 and end walls 14-14. The channel members 13 underlie the hopper sloping walls 9 and the frame end walls 14-14 each includes a vertical wall section 15 leading to an upper sloping wall section 16 which underlies the hopper sloping walls 8.

The vertical wall sections 15 have their lower portions reinforced by angle shaped members 17 which are disposed with one flange 18 extending laterally outwardly from the vertical wall 15 and at an appreciable distance above the lower edge of said wall. The adjacent flange 19 of member 17 extends downwardly from flange 18 and overlies wall 15 and is welded thereto as shown at 20 and 21.

Hinging walls 22-22 which are disposed in spaced relation are carried by the channel shaped members 13 and apertured at 23 for the reception of door hinging pivots 24.

iPivotally mounted on hinge pivots 24 are oppositely facing swinging. doors 25 and 26 which are upwardly flanged adjacent the pivoted end as seen at 27 and also at the sides as shown at 28 to form a three-sided pan-shaped structure. The doors 25 and 26 when in closed position slope downwardly towards each other to form a V-shaped hopper structure. The door 25 at its swinging end is deflected upwardly as seen at 29 to form a lip 30 extending upwardly beneath the companion door 26 and in the man ner provides for overlapping relation between the respective oppositely facing doors. The upward slant of the lip 30 is preferably such as to correspond to the downward inclination of the facing door 26 when in closed position. The overlapping door 25 has its side flanges 28 spaced outwardly beyond the side flanges 28 of the overlapped door 26 thereby permitting the overlapping door to completely embrace the end of the overlapped door. The overlapping condition between the respective doors pro vides a cuplike basin at the nadir of the hopper in which seepage of fine lading may accumulate and act as a choke to prevent leakage of lading. The doors are each reinforced adjacent their swinging end by an angle-shaped member as indicated at 31 for door 25 and at 32 for door 26. The flange 33 of member 31 is deflected upwardly at 34 to underlie the lip 30 of the door plate and the flange 35 of member 32 is likewise extended to the outer swinging end of the door to reinforce the tip thereof.

The underside of the doors are further reinforced by hinged beams 36 of angle shape with one flange 37 lying against the underside of the door plate and the adjacent flange 38 extending at a normal to the door plate. The hinge beams 36 extend rearwardly beyond the flange 27 of the doors and hinge elements 39 are disposed in the angle presented by said beam extension and flange 27 of 3 the doors and welded thereto as indicated at 40 and 41. The hinge elements which are apertured at 42 for the accommodation of the pivots 24 are received between the hinge walls 22-22 of the frame when the doors are mounted in operative position.

The doors are operated by and retained in closed position by toggle locking mechanism of the jackknife type including arms 43 carried by the overlapping door 25 and link assemblies 45 pivotally united at one end at 46 with the distal end of the arm 43 and having its opposite end pivotally united at 47 with the overlapped door 26. The link assemblies 45 and operating arms 43 are disposed at the respective ends of the doors. The arms 43 are non-rotatably mounted on an operating shaft member 48 which in turn is rotatably mounted in bearings 49 carried by the overlapping door 25 and the arms and link assemblies are therefore operable from either end of the doors.

The arm 43 in a preferred form includes a pair of walls 5050 which are spaced apart to straddle the link assembly 45 and said walls are maintained in spaced relation adjacent the shaft member 48 by being welded thereto and are further braced by a web plate 51 which is also welded to the shaft at 52 and to the walls 5050 at 53. The walls 5050 are further maintained in spaced relation adjacent their distal ends by a stop plate 54 which in co-operation with link assembly 45 performs the function of limiting knuckling movement of the mechanism in an opening direction when the doors are open as indicated by conventional dot and dash lines in FIG. 1.

The link assembly 45 preferably consists of a pair of plate members 5555 spaced apart to straddle at one end an adjusting screwthreaded eyebolt 56 carried by door 26 and having at the opposite end a spacing plate 57 welded thereto at 58. The plate 58 is extended upwardly a sufficient distance to form an abutment 59 for registering with the stop plate 54 to limit overcenter knuckling of the mechanism as heretoforce described.

The eyebolts 56 are mounted on the projecting ends of a beam member 60 which is preferably of channel shape and applied with the web 61 disposed fiatwise against the edge of the hinge beams 36 and welded thereto as indicated at 62. The flanges 63 of the member 60 extend downwardly and attached to said flanges are bearing plates 64 apertured at 65 for the accommodation of the eyebolt 56 therethrough. The length of eyebolt extending between the bearing plates is encircled by a tube 66 which is welded to the bearing plates 64. The plates 64 form bearings on which screwthreaded nuts 67 seat.

The shaft element 48 preferably consists of a tubular member and the link assemblies 45 are arched as at 68 to straddle said shaft element 48 and allow the toggle mechanism to assume an over-center toggle locked position (FIG. 2), and when so positioned the pair of doors 25 and 26 are tied together being held along a line 69 extending between the pivotal axes of the link assemblies below the axis of the shaft element.

The link assemblies and arms are further held in overcenter toggle locked relation by latches 70 which are disposed at each end of the door and operated in unison by a locking shaft 71. The locking shaft 71 extends through the tubular shaft element 48 and is rotatably mounted therein through hub portion 72 formed on the latches. The latches are shouldered at 73 for engagement with lugs 74 extending laterally from the outer link element 55. The shaft 71 is extended beyond the ends of the shaft element 48 and said projecting ends are apertured 75 to accommodate retaining pins 76 whereby the latches are held against axial displacement. The latch may thus be operated either for latching or unlatching from either side of the car.

Operation of the door mechanism is effected by means of a removable bar as indicated by full lines at 77 in FIG. for closing the doors and by conventional dot and dash lines at 78 in FIG. 2 for opening the doors. The closing operation of the doors is effected by a continuous sweep of the bar through an angle of substantially 180 degrees. The bar is held in operating position by retaining means incorporated in each arm 45 in the form of an open ended pocket 79 for receiving an end of the bar and a support 80 to form a rest for the bar at an appreciable distance from the pocket.

The pocket 79 includes an outer wall 81 spaced from the wall 50 of arm 45 and side and end walls as indicated at 82 and 83 respectively. The walls 82 and 83 extend laterally outwardly from the arm wall 50 and are welded thereto as seen at 84 and 85. The outer wall 81 is of generally triangular shape to present an edge 86 extending diagonally in relation to the end and side walls 82 and 83. The wall 81 is spaced lengthwise of the arm 45 from the post 80 and the side wall 82 bridges the said space with the edge 87 thereof leading downwardly from the wall 81 at an incline as seen at 88 towards the post 80. The inclined surface 88 in cooperation with diagonally extending edge 86 forms a continuous cam surface for ejecting the operating bar from the pocket upon overrunning of the shaft.

The support 80 is preferably formed of a plate 89 extending at an actute angle from the wall 50 and welded thereto at 90 and bent at its upper end to present an inclined ledge 91. The plate is indented at each side to present recesses 92 for holding the operating bar against sidewise displacement. The plate section 89 is braced on its underside by a web plate 93 and said plates are welded together as shown at 94 and 95 and the web plate in turn is welded to the associated arm plate 43 at 96. The pivots 46 and 47 employed at the joints of the toggle mechanism are of the headless type and retained in place by welding to their associated components as seen at 97 and 98 respectively.

With the doors in open position as indicated by conventional dot and dash lines in FIG. 1, the bar 78 is positioned in prolongation of the arms 43 in a substantially horizontal direction towards the overlapped door. Such a positioning of the operating bar is important in positively ensuring movement of the doors in proper closing sequence by lifting the overlapped door before any substantial closing movement of the overlapping door takes place. This sequence of door closing is ensured by providing for the operating bar to react and bear down on the overlapping door to actually retard its closing movement while exerting a lifting force on the overlapped door as seen in FIG. 5. The retarding condition is continued in part until such time as the axis of the pivot joining the arm and linkage assembly is in alignment with the axes of the door pivot and operating shaft as seen in FIG. 6, and further lifting of the overlapped door will be stopped by contact with the end walls of the hopper frame. Continued movement of the bar in the indicated direction will now operate to lift the overlapping door with increasing mechanical efficiency by closing the toggle as the link assembly swings downwardly.

The arrangement of arms and linkages in combination with the placement of the bar in a definite relation to the open doors thus allows for the lifting of one door during the first quarter revolution of the bar and the lifting of the second door during the second quarter revolution of the bar. The independent lifting of the doors equalizes the loading on the bar throughout its swinging movement and is conducive to ease of operation.

I claim:

1. In a railway car having an opening for discharge of lading and oppositely swinging doors movable to overlapping closed position with one of the doors having its swinging end adapted to extend beneath the other door in meeting relation, means for moving said other door to closed position in advance of said one door com-prising:

(a) an operating shaft rotatably mounted on one of the doors,

(b) arms at each end of the shaft non-rotatably mounted on the shaft,

(c) links pivotally connected to the distal end of the arms and to said other door,

(d) said arms and links being foldable to form an over center toggle locked connection between the doors,

(e) operating bar gripping means carried by the arms comprising:

(f) an open ended box shaped socket for holding an end of the operating bar and a post spaced from the pocket to engage the bar,

(g) said socket and post being so located as to compel insertion of the operating bar in prolongation of the arms whereby (h) force applied to close the doors will react against the shaftrand exert retarding force on said one door until said other door approaches closed position.

2. In a railway car having an opening for discharge of lading and oppositely swinging doors movable to closed position in overlapping relation,

(a) means for moving the overlapped door to closed position in advance of the overlapping door including:

(b) an operating shaft rotatably mounted on the overlapping door,

(c) an arm non-rotatably mounted on the shaft at each end of the door,

((1) a link pivotally connecting each arm and the overlapped door,

(e) said arm and link being foldable to a toggle overcenter locked position to maintain the doors in closed position,

(f) retaining means on the arms for holding an operating bar in prolongation of the said arms for moving the door from open to closed position by a partial revolution of the bar,

(g) said retaining means including an open ended pocket for receiving an end of the operating bar and a seat for the bar spaced from the pocket,

(h) said pocket and seat being positioned on the arm to compel placement of the operating bar in prolongation of the arms towards the overlapped door whereby (i) force applied by the bar to close the doors will react against the overlapping door and exert retarding force thereon until the overlapped door approaches closed position.

3. In a railway car having an opening for discharge of lading and oppositely swinging doors for closing the opening movable to closed position in overlapping meeting relation, means for moving the overlapped door to closed position in advance of the overlapping door comprising:

(a) an operating shaft rotatably mounted on one of the doors,

(b) arms at each end of the doors non-rotatably mounted on the shaft,

(c) links connecting the distal end of the arms and the other door,

(d) said arms and links being foldable in jackknife fashion to an over center toggle locked position,

(e) locking lugs extending laterally from the links,

(f) and rotatably mounted shouldered latches coaxially rotatable with respect to the shaft adapted {o l:ngage the lugs of the links to tie the arms and 4. The invention set forth in claim 3 wherein:

(a) the operating shaft is of tubular construction,

(b) and latches at the respective ends of the doors are mounted on a shaft extending through tubular operating shaft.

5. In a railway car having an opening for discharge of lading and oppositely swinging doors for closing the opening movable to closed position in overlapping meeting relation, means for moving the overlapped door to closed position in advance of the overlapping door comprising,

(a) an operating shaft rotatably mounted on one of the doors,

(1)) arms at each end of the doors non-rotatably mounted on the shaft,

(c) links pivotally connected at one to one of said doors and having the opposite end pivotally connected to the distal end of the arms,

(d) said arms and link being foldable to an over center toggle locked position for tying the doors together and (e) gripping means carried by the arms for holding an operating bar in operative relation comprising;

(f) a, pocket for holding an end of the bar disposed adjacent to the shaft and (g) a post spaced lengthwise from the pocket along the arm to form a rest for the bar.

6. The mechanism set forth in claim 5 wherein the post is indented to hold the bar against sidewise displacement and the side wall of the pocket holding the bar is formed with a cam edge extending at an incline whereby to kick the bar free from its holding upon overrunning of the shaft.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 571,481 11/1896 Johnson 283 1,107,896 8/1914 Caswell 105-287 1,151,407 8/1915 Seaberg 105293 X 1,294,051 2/1919 Clark 105-283 X 1,308,421 7/1919 Hillman 105-310 X 1,472,908 11/1923 Hart 105308 1,584,436 5/1926 Cremean 105299 1,813,928 7/1931 Hosceit 10-5282 X 2,348,376 5/1944 Goodwin 105280 3,183,852 5/1965 Fritz 105308 X ARTHUR L. LA POINT, Primary Examiner.

H. BELTRAN, Assistant Examiner. 

1. IN A RAILWAY CAR HAVING AN OPENING FOR DISCHARGE OF LADING AND OPPOSITELY SWINGING DOORS MOVABLE TO OVERLAPPING CLOSED POSITION WITH ONE OF THE DOORS HAVING ITS SWINGING END ADAPTED TO EXTEND BENEATH THE OTHER DOOR IN MEETING RELATION, MEANS FOR MOVING SAID OTHER DOOR TO CLOSED POSITION IN ADVANCED OF SAID ONE DOOR COMPRISING: (A) AN OPERATING SHAFT ROTATABLY MOUNTED ON ONE OF THE DOORS, (B) ARMS AT EACH END OF THE SHAFT NON-ROTATABLY MOUNTED ON THE SHAFT, (C) LINKS PIVOTALLY CONNECTED TO THE DISTAL END OF THE ARMS AND TO SAID OTHER DOOR, (D) SAID ARMS AND LINKS BEING FOLDABLE TO FORM AN OVER CENTER TOGGLE LOCKED CONNECTION BETWEEN THE DOORS, (E) OPERATING BAR GRIPPING MEANS CARRIED BY THE ARMS COMPRISING: (F) AN OPEN ENDED BOX SHAPED SOCKET FOR HOLDING AN END OF THE OPERATING BAR AND POST SPACED FROM THE POCKET TO ENGAGE THE BAR, (G) SAID SOCKET AND POST BEING SO LOCATED AS TO COMPEL INSERTION OF THE OPERATING BAR IN PROLONGATION OF THE ARMS WHEREBY (H) FORCE APPLIED TO CLOSE THE DOORS WILL REACT AGAINST THE SHAFT AND EXERT RETARDING FORCE ON SAID ONE DOOR UNTIL SAID OTHER DOOR APPROACHES CLOSED POSITION. 